According to a study by Dell and IHS, Singapore is now the global 8th for our ability to attract and foster female entrepreneurs.

This ranking puts us at the top in the Asia Pacific… but it also drops us 3 ranks from 2016.

In 2016, the exact same study, albeit now larger, ranked us 5th, behind New York, Bay Area, London and Stockholm.

This year, we are still behind these 4 places but now Boston, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. have also overtaken us.

To note though, is that the 2016 study for female entrepreneurs only took into account 25 cities, while 2017’s studied 50.

Put that into a percentile and Singapore ranked in the 80% percentile for 2016 and 84% for 2017.

But not only are we still behind last year’s 1st – 4th, now Boston, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. have also overtaken us.

From 5th to 8th

First, The Good Part

This study evaluated the cities on “local policies, programmes and characteristics, along with national laws and customs”.

According to their metrics, Singapore places 7th for capital, 6th for an enabling environment, 5th for culture and 10th for technology across all cities.

An analysis of Singapore highlighted that our notable strengths lie in the remarkable development of our country as well as our progressive tech and Smart City initiatives.

And for females, our abundance of businesswomen networking and advocacy groups clinched us the 5th position in ‘Culture’.

Image Credit: Smart Island

According to Amit Midha – President of Asia-Pacific commercial at Dell EMC – Singapore (and Hong Kong) stands out for its focus on tech leadership and ability to empower female entrepreneurs to stand out.

In March 2017, the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs also ranked us in the Top 5 countries, and in the lead for the “highest rated conditions for women business ownership and entrepreneurship”.